By WILLIAM J. KOLE
Associated Press
Nine years after a Pan Am jumbo jet blew up, raining bodies and wreckage over Lockerbie, Scotland, the victims' loved ones are still seeking justice - and losing patience.
As the World Court waded into the legal fray in october 1997, the FBI vowed to redouble efforts to bring to trial the two Libyans suspected of planting the suitcase bomb that shredded Flight 103 on Dec. 21, 1988, killing 270 people in the air and on the ground.
``They've got to know that just because this crime happened in 1988, the United States, the FBI, the Department of Justice and the people of Scotland and England have not forgotten,'' said deputy FBI director Robert Bryant, whose agency has placed the suspects on its most-wanted list.
``This will not go away. We're not going to let this issue go unresolved,'' he said. ``We'll follow them to the ends of the world to bring them to court.''
It was Libya that in 1992 brought the case before the United Nations' highest judicial body, known formally as the International Court of Justice. The North African nation wants the court to quash, once and for all, U.S. and British attempts to get the suspects extradited.
Libya denies claims that the two indicted suspects, Abdel Basset Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, were intelligence agents and says they had no role in the bombing.
Libya also says that by investigating the case it has fulfilled its obligations under the 1971 Montreal Convention on unlawful acts against aircraft. It has asked the court to find the United States and Britain in violation of that same treaty for refusing to cooperate with Libyan authorities.
Britain, arguing its case yesterday, and the United States, to follow today, want the case kicked out of court. They say the World Court has no jurisdiction in the affair and that a trial - if there ever is one - should be held in the United States or United Kingdom.
Libya wants the case tried at home, at The Hague or in another neutral country, preferably an Arab one.
The families just want justice.
``This was murder. It's very difficult for me and my children to see that there has been no resolution,'' said Stephanie Bernstein of Bethesda, Md., a mother of two whose husband - former U.S. Justice Department attorney Michael Bernstein - was killed.
``It's terribly difficult as a family member to see that people are not doing what needs to be done, which is to hand over the suspects in the crime.''
By resolving the standoff, the Libyans could expect the easing of U.N. economic sanctions that have punished their country since 1992.
But Libyan revolutionary leader Moammar Gadhafi says he'll give up the men only if the United States turns over the U.S. pilots who carried out a 1986 air raid that Libya says killed 37 people, including Gadhafi's adopted daughter.
``This is the policy of reciprocity,'' Gadhafi said last week in a speech carried live on Libyan TV. ``Otherwise, to hell with them.''
Dr. Jim Swire, whose daughter, Flora, died aboard the jet on the day before her 24th birthday, winces at such words. Since her death, he has sought justice as a leader of a group called UK Families-Flight 103.
``She was murdered,'' said Swire, who came to The Hague to watch the proceedings from the ornate gallery of the Peace Palace where the court sits.
``I've had enough of the politicians and their arrogant intransigence. I want to know who killed her and I want them punished.''
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